第 40 页

this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have

been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasion-

ally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to

the many causes celebres and sensational trials in which I have

figured but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial

in themselves, but which have given room for those faculties of

deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made my special

province."

"And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself

absolved from the charge of sensationalism which has been

urged against my records."

"You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing

cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood

pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a

disputatious rather than a meditative mood --" you have erred

perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your

statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing

upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is

really the only notable feature about the thing."

"It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the

matter," I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by

the egotism which I had more than once observed to be a strong

factor in my friend's singular character.

"No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as

was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full

justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing -- a thing

beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is

upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.

You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures

into a series of tales."

It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after

breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at Baker

Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of dun-coloured

houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, shapeless

blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit and

shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for the

table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been silent

all the morning, dipping continuously into the advertisement

columns of a succession of papers until at last, having apparently

given up his search, he had emerged in no very sweet temper to

lecture me upon my literary shortcomings.

"At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which

he had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire,

"you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out

of these cases which you have been so kind as to interest

yourself in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal

sense, at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help

the King of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary

Sutherland, the problem connected with the man with the twisted

lip, and the incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters

which are outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the

sensational, I fear that you may have bordered on the trivial."

"The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I

hold to have been novel and of interest."

"Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unob-

servant public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a

compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of

analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial. I cannot

blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at

least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to

my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an

agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to

young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched

bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my

zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across

to me.

It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding eve-

ning, and ran thus:

DEAR MR. HOLMES:

I am very anxious to consult you as to whether I should

or should not accept a situation which has been offered to

me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I

do not inconvenience you.

Yours faithfully,

VIOLET HUNTER.

"Do you know the young lady?' I asked.

"Not I."

"It is half-past ten now."

"Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring."

"It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You

remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared

to be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investiga-

tion. It may be so in this case, also."

"Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be

solved, for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in

question."

As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the

room. She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright. quick

face, freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a

woman who has had her own way to make in the world.

"You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as

my companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange

experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort from

whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be

kind enough to tell me what I should do."

"Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do

anything that I can to serve you."

I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the

manner and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his

searching fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids

drooping and his finger-tips together, to listen to her story.

"I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the

family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colo-

nel received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took

his children over to America with him, so that I found myself

without a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements,

but without success. At last the little money which I had saved

began to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should

do.

"There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West

End called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a

week in order to see whether anything had turned up which

might suit me. Westaway was the name of the founder of the

business, but it is really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her

own little office, and the ladies who are seeking employment

wait in an anteroom, and are then shown in one by one, when

she consults her ledgers and sees whether she has anything which

would suit them.

"Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little

office as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A

prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great

heavy chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat

sat at her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very

earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a

jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper.

" 'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better.

Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his

hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a

comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at

him.

" 'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked.

" 'Yes, sir.'

" 'As governess?'

" 'Yes, sir.'

" 'And what salary do you ask?'

" 'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence

Munro.'

" 'Oh, tut, tut! sweating -- rank sweating!' he cried, throwing

his fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling

passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with

such attractions and accomplishments?'

" 'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,'

said I. 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing --'

" 'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question.

The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deport-

ment of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are

not fined for the rearing of a child who may some day play a

considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have

why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to

accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me,

madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.'

"You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I

was, such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The

gentleman, however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon

my face, opened a pocket-book and took out a note.

" 'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant

fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid the

white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies half

their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little expenses

of their journey and their wardrobe.'

"It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so

thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the

advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something

unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to

know a little more before I quite committed myself.

" 'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I.

" 'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches,

five miles on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely

country, my dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.'

" 'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they

would be.'

" 'One child -- one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if

you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack!

smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned

back in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again.

"I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement,

but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was

joking.

" 'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a

single child?'

" 'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he

cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would

suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give,

provided always that they were such commands as a lady might

with propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?'

" 'I should be happy to make myself useful.'

" 'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people,

you know -- faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear

any dress which we might give you, you would not object to our

little whim. Heh?'

" 'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words.

" 'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to

you?'

" 'Oh, no.'

" 'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?'

"I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr.

Holmes, my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar

tint of chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream

of sacrificing it in this offhand fashion.

" 'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had

been watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see

a shadow pass over his face as I spoke.

" 'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a little

fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam,

ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you wonn't cut your

hair?'

" 'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly.

" 'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a pity,

because in other respects you would really have done very

nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more

of your young ladies.'

"The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers

without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with

so much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspect-

ing that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal.

" 'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she

asked.

" 'If you please, Miss Stoper.'

" 'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the

most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You can

hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such opening

for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong upon

the table, and I was shown out by the page.

"Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and

found little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon

the table. I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very

foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and

expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were

at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few governesses

in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, what use was my

hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing it short and

perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was inciined

to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after I was

sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go back

to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open when I

received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it here